Job balancing?

[dmuller30]

AOE Spam is part of it, but there's a lot more going on than that. Enfeebling AOES (especially paralyzes so potent that you can't remedy and no practical way to remove Amensia, and even a well timed Blind by the boss) are a huge part of it.

Said it before, say it again: Melee require too much babysitting when a pair of scholars can do the same job far more efficiently, in lesser gear. (An evaded attack means a miss. A magic-evaded attack means a resist). Since your party will have some mages (50-99k MBs for minimal tp feed and minimal hate is too lovely not to embrace), its easier with just mages. The GEO buffs to favor them and doesn't worry about melee who aren't there.

And each job did not have a use at 75 besides niche fights. They were called lolpup and lolbst for a reason. DNC was pretty awful, THF and sometimes DRG were only wanted for TH and Angon. SCH replaced SMN for buff-magic.

Every job had some purpose there wasn't lolpup when it had it's over powered ja set and bst well you are right there lol. . . . . DNC on Titan / Pheonix servers were pretty nice I don't have any clue what you are talking about DNC and THF were both used pretty fairly in the HNMLS I was inm because DNC could survive so many different things that other jobs couldn't and could help keep a party alive while putting out dps. THF still had its uses and so did a good DRG. SMN . . . . don't even get me started on what that job needs because the list on that job is enough to write a novel about, I don't understand why that job has never really caught up with the other jobs in the entire what 13/14 years the game has been out? Anyways back at lvl 75 there were the preferred jobs but they weren't set in stone as must have jobs like we have now.

[OmnysValefor]

Every job had some purpose there wasn't lolpup when it had it's over powered ja set and bst well you are right there lol. . . . . DNC on Titan / Pheonix servers were pretty nice I don't have any clue what you are talking about DNC and THF were both used pretty fairly in the HNMLS I was inm because DNC could survive so many different things that other jobs couldn't and could help keep a party alive while putting out dps. THF still had its uses and so did a good DRG. SMN . . . . don't even get me started on what that job needs because the list on that job is enough to write a novel about, I don't understand why that job has never really caught up with the other jobs in the entire what 13/14 years the game has been out? Anyways back at lvl 75 there were the preferred jobs but they weren't set in stone as must have jobs like we have now.

When DNC was introduced, DNC did similar dmg to thf without SATA to back it up. DNC at 75 (at least for the first year or two of WoTG) was impotent.

BST at 75? It was basically a warrior without any offensive ability, and since it did its best with /nin, it got nothing from sub either. The pets were laughable because they couldn't hit anything remotely difficult.

BST is in a good spot now and was in a really great spot for a long time, but it was crap at 75. THF was used for two things -- Treasure hunter and hate-control and if it didn't have TH, noone would have brought it.

So what is the new king of blocking?

Don't laugh, Priwen while Reprisal is up--so you build yourself a good haste/fc set and cast Reprisal in that. Aeonic blocks more-per-hit but blocks much less often. I don't like it anymore than anyone else but SE is fine with where shields are at.

[Stompa]

BST at 75? It was basically a warrior without any offensive ability, and since it did its best with /nin, it got nothing from sub either. The pets were laughable because they couldn't hit anything remotely difficult.

BST is in a good spot now and was in a really great spot for a long time, but it was crap at 75.

In 2005 I watched a girl on Remora, as she solo'd Xolotl on BST75/whm. She was charming the hidden Antlions and running away, for hours. She won. Xol was an alliance mob at the time.

In 2005 I got my Ohat, in a group 3/18. Me and two other BST75/whm, we trio'd Haku using charmed eyes. Haku was an alliance mob at the time.

Also in 2005 I solo'd Alkyoneus on BST/whm, using charmed bats and stop jugs. He was quite a powerful mob to solo at the time.

I'm not wanting to start an argument here, and I would completely agree with you that BST JugPets were incredibly weak, and had miserable accuracy. I totally agree with you on that. But that doesn't mean Bst75 "was crap." Bst75 was a master of the wilderness, and in the wild lands Bst was the most powerful job in FFXI.

In BCNM / Sky / Mission battles / etc., Bst was forced to us JugPets, and was indeed crap. But in the wilderness, Bst was completely mighty, the mightiest job of all.